Hey yal! It's Shakita here to bring you the Happy Hippos Embrace cloth pad sew along.
The Embrace is my favorite cloth pad pattern. The sections of this pad can be mixed and matched to create the perfect pad for you. My perfect pad has a wide bottom and the thinner piece for the top. My flow tends to go toward the back (gushing) and the left side, so the 16 inch pad is perfect in terms of coverage. Cloth pads are also great scrap busters! When the scraps are small, you can even quilt 2 fabrics together for a creative topper.
Today, we will be creating a floating core pad. In this way, the core of the pad is sew to a woven fabric and suspended between the topper (side that touches your vagina) and backer (side that touches undies) fabric.
Let's get started with the supplies you'll need!
Supplies:
Knit fabric 9 x length of pad + 2 (example: my 16 in pad used a 9 x 18 inch piece)
Woven fabric 9 x length of pad
Waterproof or water resistant fabric -I used PUL which is waterproof because that's all I have on had. I typically use anti-pill fleece since my flow isn't too heavy.
Core fabric -I use terry cloth
Glue Stick (washable)
Plastic Kam snaps -I don't recommend metal as they can rust
Snap setter and awl
Washable marker
Chopstick
We will begin by drawing our core pattern on the core fabric and cutting it out, inside the draw lines. I am making a light absorbency pad, so I am using only 1 layer of terry cloth. I use 2 layers for moderate and 3 for heavy.
Grab your woven fabric and your pad pattern and draw the shape on the fabric with the marker. We are not going to cut this out. Leaving this whole will make this process a lot faster!
If you are using a multi layered core, at this point, you can glue your core layers together and move on to the next step.
I am going to grab my glue stick and glue my core in the center of my pad shape. The glue will ensure the core won't shift while you're sewing it down.
Let's take this to our machines and sew the core to the woven fabric. I use a straight stitch for this and I increase my stitch length incrementally with each layer added to the core. Sew around the edge of the core, about 1/4 inch toward the center.
Now, we'll grab our glue stick and topper fabric. Add glue to the right side of the floating core piece; the right side will be the side without the core. Then lay the floating core piece right side to the wrong side of the topper fabric.
After cutting my topper fabric in the same rectangular shape as the core fabric, I like to flip my pad over and adjust the knit fabric if there are any puckers.
Next, we will place our topper right side together on top of our backer fabric and clip. I used PUL, so I am going to use the soft side as my right side.
I ended up marking my turn hole before taking the pad to my machine. Once you had the pad at your machine, begin sewing at the start of your turn hole. Be sure to back stitch, as the turn hole will need the support when we turn our pad.
*If you don't add seam allowance to the pad, you will sew on the line.*
Once you get to the corner, instead of pivoting at the sharp corner, we are going to make a straight line at the corner. Indicated in red, this small adjustment will help relieve tension and alleviate pulling when we clip our corners.
Let's cut the excess fabric away from the pad. Since we've kept our pieces whole, we've saved time since we did not cut each layer separately. I like to start cutting at my turn hole, ensuring to leave a lip so I will have fabric to sew down once I turn and top stitch.
We will also need to clip the corners. Clip them in a V shape -indicated in red, using caution not to clip your stitches. I use a small pair of scissor for this task.
After clipping each corner, we are ready to turn our pad right sides out. Start with the wings first, bring them into the center of the pad. Then, bring the opposite end of the turn hole through the turn hole. On my pad, I will be bringing the bottom of the pad through the turn hole.
Your pad might look a little funky, but we're going to fix that by using a chop stick or long cylindrical item to push the seams out.
Once your seams are pushed out, we are going to tuck the excess fabric from our turn hole into the pad. Next, we will take the pad to the ironing board and press and iron our pad.
We're almost done! Let's take the pad to our machine and top stitch. I start top stitching in the middle of my turn hole. I do not back stitch here as I feel that meeting my beginning stitch with my ending stitch makes for a neater look. I am going to top sitch about 1/4 from the edge of the pad.
Now, we can add our snaps! This pattern calls for 2 sets of snaps, however, I prefer 1 set. I find it easier to snap my pad into place with 1 set. Since I am not using 2 sets of snaps, I will find the center of my pad wing and poke that spot with an awl.
Place the pad pattern on top of the pad. Use the dots marked on the wing to mark or poke your snap hole.
After poking holes for your snaps, place the snaps and set them. I place the female snap on the right wing facing up and the male snap on the left wing facing down. If you are marking your pad to indicate absorbency, you can use a small ribbon cut to place on the back side of the pad, layered in between the snap and the pad before setting the snap.
Now we're done! The only thing left to do before use is wash your pad to get rid of glue and any left over marker. You did it!!
Comments